As bad as the election results were for House Democrats, another set of returns could further imperil their political lives for the next decade.

In numerous large battleground states, Republicans made substantial gains of governor offices and legislative chambers. That, in turn, will strengthen their hand in next year’s redistricting efforts, which will be launched officially next month when the Census Bureau’s 2010 state-by-state population count will produce the reapportionment of the House that will be elected in November 2012.

In Tuesday’s elections, Republicans gained at least 19 legislative chambers for a total of at least 55 in the 50 states. They will have bicameral control in a disproportionate share of the largest states, according to tentative post-election reviews by both parties.

The consequences for redistricting will be significant, not least because Republicans gained numerous House seats in those states that they will be better-positioned to safeguard two years from now. In most of the 10 states that are tentatively expected to lose House seats, the seat losses are more likely to come from Democrats.

“Between 15 and 25 [House] seats will be protected … or are more likely to be Republican after redistricting, after we have won these legislative chambers,” said Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spent an estimated $30 million to influence those results.

Michael Sergeant, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, issued a subdued statement that did not directly address the redistricting impact of the election results but acknowledged the significant setbacks. “In a political environment worse even than that of 1994, our candidates for state legislatures fought tirelessly against the GOP wave that swept the nation this fall. Our candidates and legislative leaders should be proud of their impressive and hard-fought campaigns.”

A DLCC preliminary analysis showed that Republicans will control redistricting in states that have 194 House seats, compared with 124 for Democrats. At the start of the most recent redistricting process in 2001 — which also benefited the GOP — a similar review showed Republicans in control of states with 130 seats and Democrats with 101 seats.

Pennsylvania is typical of the states where redistricting inflicted additional wounds on Democrats. Republicans took over the state House, where Democrats had held a four-seat majority; the GOP retained its Senate control. And Republican Tom Corbett was elected governor of Pennsylvania, which likely will lose one House seat following reapportionment.

With the GOP’s five-seat gain flipping control of the state’s congressional delegation from 12-7 for Democrats to 12-7 for the GOP, the redistricting likely will target one of the remaining Democrats — perhaps Tim Holden or Mark Critz, who hold districts that are mostly outside metropolitan areas.

A similar pattern likely will apply in Ohio, which seems set to lose two House seats and where Republicans gained five seats on Tuesday. “It’s better to have Dennis Kucinich at risk than John Boehner,” Gillespie quipped.

The picture is more muddled in New York, which also could lose two House seats and where Republicans added five seats to a delegation where Democrats previously held a 27-2 control. Tentative results of the GOP’s efforts to regain the state Senate, where Democrats held a one-seat majority, remain uncertain. And that chamber has a recent history of partisan shenanigans for control of the tightly divided Senate.

In the two mega-states that likely will gain seats following reapportionment, Republicans appear to have complete control in redistricting. And they scored multiple congressional gains this week in both Texas and Florida, which are expected to gain four and two House seats, respectively.

With growing minority populations in each of those states, Democrats might gain some of those seats — in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Orlando areas, for example. But the corollary could be that those new districts will be packed with Democrats and adjoining districts will be more secure for Republicans.

The legislative shifts could also impact states that will not have a change in their congressional delegation. In North Carolina, for example, Republicans gained control of both the House and Senate; the state’s constitution leaves no voice in redistricting for the governor, who currently is Democrat Bev Purdue.

Unique in the South, Democrats retain significant control of the House delegation in the Tar Heel State. Despite several GOP challenges this year, Democrats appear to have retained their 8-5 majority. But in a pre-election interview, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) complained that the current map benefits Democrats, and he speculated that a GOP takeover of the Legislature could give Republicans an opportunity to gain at least two or three House seats.

As for the broader implications, Republican pick-ups of more than 500 legislative seats across the nation showed that this year’s gains are “broader and deeper” than in 1994, said Gillespie, a veteran GOP strategist. “I believe that it will be long-lasting. … A chord has been struck.” He predicted that the 2012 election could be “a very defining moment.”